Electrochemical cutting of microslits on metallic glass using cylindrical submicron tips

Metallic glass is a promising material for fabricating micro-nanostructures, yet the minimum feature size in electrochemical cutting is typically limited by the diameter of the wire electrode. To overcome this, a novel electrochemical cutting process using cylindrical submicron tips as tool electrodes is proposed. Cylindrical tips with an average diameter of 160 nm over an apical length of 5 μm were fabricated via liquid membrane electrochemical etching. Electrochemical cutting experiments were then performed on Ni-based metallic glass using the fabricated submicron tips. By decreasing the pulse-on time to 25 ns, a microslit with an average width of 2.6 μm were achieved, which is the minimum observed under these operating conditions in this paper. • Submicron tips replace micro-wires to enhance electrochemical cutting resolution. • Cylindrical tungsten tips with Ø160 nm over a 5 μm apical length were fabricated. • Through-thickness cutting of 2.5 μm metallic glass achieved a 2.6 μm slit width using 25 ns pulses.